Artona Walker

Type species: Artona discivitta Walker, India.

Synonyms:

• Bintha Walker (type species gracilis Walker, Japan)
• [Balataca Walker (type species agerioides Walker = octomaculata Bremer, China)]
• Pseudosesidia Alberti (type species ageriaeformis Alberti)
• [Rhaphidognatha Felder & Felder (type species sesiaeformis Felder & Felder, China = octomaculata) praeocc.]
• Zeuxippa Herrich-Schäffer (type species Zeuxippa pulchra Drury, China).

Efetov & Tarmann (1995) divided Artona into three subgenera: Artona; Balataea; Pseudosesidia. However, they also noted that the genus needs revision based on type material. They treated Amuria Staudinger (type species Amuria cyclops Staudinger, eastern Siberia) as a distinct genus, though Tarmann (1992b) had placed it as a subgenus of Balataea. Owada & Inada (2005) have indicated that Balataea merits full generic status, characterised by the yellowish stripes and dots of the forewing and the hyaline area of the hindwing. The male genitalia showed marked development of the valve sacculus, including a long hair pencil on the basal part and extensive development of the ‘Artona finger’, including a spine at the distal end of its basal sheath. The aedeagus has a single long cornutus.

The only Bornean species currently placed within Artona, Artona pluristrigata Hampson, has unusual facies, but is only known from the holotype female. Its placement needs to be assessed further when more material becomes available and when a clearer picture of the generic classification has been obtained from the further studies recommended by Owada & Inada (2005). These authors have provided a more extensive review of the situation. The generic synonymy above is for the Artona complex as a whole, but with names referable to Balataea placed in square brackets.

Tarmann (2004) recognised a group of Artonini that feed on monocotyledons and have a foretibial epiphysis, two pairs of lateral abdominal glands and a well developed ‘Artona - finger’ in the male genitalia. These include Artona, Amuria and Palmartona Tarmann in the Oriental Region, bearing a sister-relationship to the mainly Australasian Australartona Tarmann, Pseudoamuria Tarmann and Homophyllotis Turner.

Tothill et al. (1930) listed several features that distinguish Sundanian Artona taxa such as Artona trisignata Snellen from related, primarily monocotyledous-feeding genera such as Palmartona (see below) and Homophyllotis Turner (as represented by Homophyllotis albicilia Hampson; see below). Ventral verrucae are lacking in Homophyllotis albicilia (present in the other two) but the dorsal ones are particularly prominent. It shares with trisignata, but not Palmartona, lateral glands on the prothorax, and all three species have a median dorsal papilla on that segment. Presence of two verrucae on A9 is also a feature shared between trisignata and Homophyllotis albicilia.

Tarmann (1992b) and Robinson et al. (2001) listed species of Artona and Balataea as feeding on grasses, bamboos (Gramineae) and palms (Palmae), and the former noted two species of his section Amuria of Balataea as feeding mainly on Zingiberaceae (gingers: Alpinia; Amomum; Etlingera (= Achasma, Nicolaia); Hornstedtia; Zingiber), but also on Michelia (Magnoliaceae) and Pittosporum (Pittosporaceae). These Balataea records were originally mostly published by Tothill et al. (1930). Owada & Inada (2005) documented a strong association of their concept of Balataea with Gramineae. The species concerned, trisignata, with Balataea quadrisignata Snellen and the two featured by Barlow (1982; as Zeuxippa), Zeuxippa zebraica Butler and Zeuxippa digitata Hampson, are recorded from Java and Peninsular Malaysia and have varying numbers of yellow to white patches on dark forewings, and may well prove also to occur in Borneo.